Fernando Alonso said that staying calm was the key to securing pole position in a wet qualifying session at Silverstone.

Having been in the drop zone during a red flag period in Q2, Alonso managed to get through to Q3 and then snatched pole position with his final flying lap having traded times with Mark Webber throughout the session. After securing pole Alonso said that there was no secret to his performance other than putting together a clean lap at the end.

"No secret, I think it's tricky conditions for everyone," Alonso said. "You have to be calm in some difficult moments, as in Q2 we were 15th and 16th under the red flag so it was not easy. So we went through Q2 and then in Q3 it was a difficult choice between extreme wets and intermediate tyres. We chose the intermediate tyres and when we saw everyone running on those tyres we more or less calmed down a little bit. And then we put a lap together, which is not easy. You make a little mistake here or there, and to complete a lap without a huge mistake is not easy in these conditions."

Alonso played down the significance of pole position, however, saying it was only visibility that was the main plus of his starting position.

"I'm happy with the pole position after nearly two years; for Ferrari that's a long time. We'll see, tomorrow is the race and with these weather conditions the qualifying is probably one of the less important of the year because everything will mix up after a few laps tomorrow. But obviously for visibility and things like that it's always better to start at the front so I'm very happy."